The Bus is Back In Town

​So our tongues may have been planted firmly in our cheeks when it came to the Best Bus Route category in our 2009 Best Of St. Louis issue:

Best Bus RouteWe regret due to lack of funding service to this category is suspended.

But despite seemingly every useful stop in the city bearing that brief and cutting message, some good things are actually going down with public transportation in the River City.

At the beginning of August, Metro implemented their "Partial Service Restoration Plan," which brought back and created more than two dozen routes in the city and county.

As the observant folks at UrbanReviewSTL point out, the coolest of those is the new Downtown Circulator, which loops from City Hall to America's Center to Busch Stadium. (Hey, how about that, we're a big city after all! With a cheap and efficient to get around downtown and everything!)

But by far the best news is that St. Louis' bus routes are now available on Google Maps. Enter your start and end address in the "Get Directions" search function and it spits out the nearest stops, estimated times, and route options. It's convenient, it's accurate, and it beats the hell out of the "TripFinder" function on Metro's website.

Check it out:
Say you're going to a Rams game sometime in the next couple weeks. After seeing the home team get trounced, you want to drown your sorrows but you're already too drunk from tailgating to drive anywhere. Well, here is the easiest way to get from the Edward Jones Dome to Randall's Wine and Spirits without a car: